On August 29th, 1958, a little boy was born into the world who would "heal the world" for the 50 years he remained here.
Happy birthday Mr. Thriller!
We miss you and love you.
And even named a generation after you!
(The ThrillerBabies! Those born 1965-1980)

Sincerely,JOSHUA CRAWFORD

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.BREAKING THRILLERBABY NEWS: Jan. 2016
Beloved the world over, ThrillerBaby ICON David Bowie, gone too soon at age 69, Jan 10th, 2016.And as we always try when someone of THIS magnitude passes on, we turn to Joshua Crawford for an originally penned OBIT/MEMORIAL.The below montage was thrown together the moment the news broke by Crawford himself. And what follows it, are Crawford, in his own words, on behalf of the ThrillerBaby Generation. "All I can say on behalf of my generation, is that like Michael Jackson, David Bowie was truly unique in that his music transcended genres and the ages, and that he was one of the very first to make sure his audience would GET THAT, right from the start, by utilizing his ever-changing looks, to represent this fact. It's almost fitting that he passed away, just shortly after water was discovered on MARS, and on the very day director Ridley Scott won a Golden Globe for translating a more scientific approach to Mars for the silver-screen. Afterall. It was BOWIE, who pondered the question over 40 years ago, by asking us with that beautiful song, is there "Life on mars?" It's wonderful that he lived to see his legendary song, be somewhat answered, 40-some-odd years later! His presence as a singer-songwriter was so powerful, that quite often, audiences paid little attention to how brilliant of an actor he was too; choosing only a handful of films to lend his screen-presence to, with "The Man Who Fell To Earth" (with much of it shot in my native state of New Mexico), "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence", "The Hunger" (the first film directed by Ridley's brother, Tony, also gone too soon!), and "Labyrinth" (with George Lucas and Jim Henson!) all displaying his wonderful versatility.
Where some might have grown too shy with the unique pair of eyes that he had (Trust me! I know the feeling!), which were the result of a youth injury, Bowie, instead, made an entire 4-decade career out of them, and my only regret is that he didn't live long enough to see "Signature Place" get into massive print just yet, or get translated to the screen to reveal just how influential his song "Modern Love" had over my generation. There will never be another Bowie. For HE pushed the envelope FIRST with trying to let us know, that music, should have no male or female, but instead the harmony of the universe. It was risky during his time to treat his physical persona as careful as his musical persona, but because his melodies were just so catchy and diverse, with each song being extremely different from one to the other, it paid off. And who can forget what an odd perfect fluke of a merger it was, when Bowie teamed up with big-bander Bing Crosby on a Christmas TV special in the late 1970s to sing "The Little Drummer Boy" (Peace On Earth)" ... which was so popular, radio DJs around the globe used the footage to turn it into a now popular Christmas song! And where would the 1980s have been without Bowie's and Mick Jagger's nod to "Dancing in The Streets"? Others, who came after him, who tried to take on so many appearances without quite having the songwriting talent to back it up (OR 4 decades!), paled in comparison to this unusual "Martian" of a man, who seemed to have known he wasn't of this earth, and so he kindly shared his songs with us for an unheard of 4-decades, with his very soul, making sure his looks represented this. Bowie knew how to shock us, just enough to make us pay attention, without going off the deep end like so many artists often do. He died at 69, and in 69 MORE years, his songs will still be as popular as they were upon their original release; if not MORE so, now that the future can look past HIS looks and music, to finally realize what an awesome “lyricist” he was as well. I don't know how he took such odd choices of words (he was a very punctual man), and made them into such memorable melodies, but it seemed HE did. "Let's Dance", which featured Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar, was one of the first 45-records I ever bought, and it still sounds just as fresh today, as it did in 1983, as does "Space Oddity" and “Life On Mars.” Thousands of years from now, when mankind looks back on some of the very first artists to have been influenced by the first moon-landing, it will always boil down to Bowie acting as alternate ego stage persona of “Ziggy Stardust,” despite the fact that “Space Oddity” and its story of “Major Tom” being lost in space, was shockingly released as a single 5 days BEFORE the moon landing. And its title does kind of … well … resemble a little film from a guy named Kubrick. (Peter Schilling's nod to it with 1983's "Major Tom (Coming Home)" is also featured in "Signature Place!")
David Bowie said and did many things to get people to look beyond his rather frail physique (he suffered a strong cocaine addiction throughout the 1970s (he barely remembers shooting “The Man Who Fell To Earth”, despite winning a Saturn Award for it) in order to pay attention to his music, and did so without losing his own identity TO drugs like so many of his era did; which is a very rare thing for a modern musician these days.
John Hughes was wise to place “Young Americans” into his debut film, “Sixteen Candles”, and even MORE wise to listen to actress Ally Sheedy who suggested that Hughes’ NEXT film, “The Breakfast Club” (the most enduring teen-angst film of all time!) utilize a few lyrics of Bowie’s song “Changes” … to crack open the very beginning of the movie; (literally!) metaphoring the fact that the audience is about to “crack open” the psyches of 5 very different stereotypical teenagers who despite wealth or poverty, all have inner struggles.
And I don’t think it was a coincidence that the Criterion folks chose “The Man Who Fell To Earth” as their very first blu-ray release which is currently out of print and fetches top dollar at the moment. Bowie’s art was respected, beyond just his looks and persona, and that’s what TRUE art should be, and what I think he would’ve wanted us to remember him for; true art. Many people at the time of Bowie’s rise to “Fame” didn’t want to LIKE Bowie if they had a look at him in his early flamboyant incarnations of the 1970s, but if they closed their eyes and listened, they immediately fell in love with his catchy riffs and melodies and storytelling lyrics, and couldn’t deny that he was good at it, and he knew it. His performance in “Man Who Fell To Earth” and “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” probably should have garnered him Oscar nominations, but David Bowie was always a quick thinker and a little bit too ahead of his own time for his own good, but not so much so that he was out of sync with his ever-growing fan base. David Bowie didn't FOLLOW style, he CAUSED it. And just about the time his latest style would catch on, he'd dump it for a new one to keep himself from growing bored and stale. As where would Kevin Bacon have been, had not Bowie been blamed for Kevin's look in the classic 1984 thrillerbaby film "Footloose?"
If I, a musician myself, could choose one word to describe his sound? It would be two words; “melodically diverse.” He was infused by R&B influences as a gifted boy, well-schooled with a vast lexicon of words, and ushered in hair&make-up for rock-stars before KISS was doing it, which later gave way for the entire hair-metal and synth-pop bands of the 1980s to add more hairspray to it. (Poison, Bon Jovi, Boy George, Duran Duran, The Human League, The Cure, Annie Lennox, Cyndi Lauper, etc, etc, right down to more modern band The Killers, Katy Perry, and Lady Gaga)
Bowie’s honesty and self-admission to suffering from narcotic habits (as so many did in the 1970s) were welcomed in their time because he usually denied nothing, and admitted everything, even if he was just making it up in order to sell his product. Yet despite having a product to even sell, and being considered one of the Godfathers of “Progressive Rock” and “Glam Rock”, there was something very "organic" in his productions that have kept them from sounding dated. His record-labels are to be commended for ever taking such risks with him, given that his first 5 singles under his real name, never went anywhere. Thus, he should be studied now, particularly by music-industry executives, because he represents what the entire music industry is lacking in their artists of current day; “artist development.”
If David Bowie were signed to a record-label today, there’s no way he would’ve been allowed to experiment with so many albums that allowed him to grow, as well as his audience, which finally led up to masterpieces like “Let’s Dance”, “Modern Love”, “China Girl”, “Cat People”, and “Absolute Beginners.” And he would be dumped after only one album, or one song that didn’t sell. (Much of his earlier and now famous work, didn’t grow wings until years later). And although I adored Vanilla Ice’s song “Ice Ice Baby” in the early 1990s along with everyone else, the reason WHY I did, was because it sounded like the more ageless sounding song that I adored even MORE so, “Under Pressure”, that Bowie had teemed up with Freddie Mercury of QUEEN to create in the early 1980s that now gets more air-play than Vanilla’s ever could. (They rightfully sued him and settled out of court. And the case remains perhaps the very beginning of when the "rap music world" seemed to have become so devoid of any ORIGINAL song of their own, that they had to continually use other artists’ works in order to create a hit for themselves by slapping rap lyrics onto them.)
1981’s “Under Pressure” is the perfect title of the very kinds of songs I like; ones that’s titles contain melodies that contradict them. And anytime “I” get under pressure, I can play that song, and it always seems to take away some of the very pressure that the weight of the world has upon me; because it’s actually quite a happy melodic tune, and acts as a remedy to cure its title; a classic example of a “perfect pop song” that contains MANY memorable melodies within just one song, in addition to the chorus. If any growing artists out there wants to hear what a perfect “abridgment” sounds like, this is the song to study how to do it right.
Without quite knowing just how blues-oriented Bowie was in his love for black music as a young Brit, I do find it quite ironic that I utilized “Modern Love” during a sequence in my novel “Signature Place” where many children who have experienced an endless summer drought (both physically and mentally) are suddenly rained upon by the heavens, and are so overjoyed, that they end up dancing their way up the street to arrive at an all-black nearby church. I guess on a subconscious level, the background vocals in the song, do indeed sound like a black choir at times, and my spirit must’ve somehow made the connection without knowing it. (The LYRICS in the song, afterall, do indeed claim "church on time" throughout the entire song!) But I hadn’t quite realized it at the time of writing the sequence, just how perfect the song and the content of the sequence of what I wrote, go together. I would like to believe it would’ve made Bowie proud. But “the man who fell to earth,” has now left it, and has become “Ashes to Ashes.” And he and his “Rebel Rebel” originality will be missed. Yet thankfully, his “Fame” and "Fashion" left us quite a large amount of incredible work. I think I speak on behalf of many when I say, “Bowie? You were RIGHT! There really WASlife on mars! And likeMajor Tom once said, I think you really “made the grade.”

-- JOSHUA CRAWFORD(Jan.11th, 2016)
(And for those that don't know, Bowie's beautiful wife, Iman, starred in one of Jackson's ever-pioneering videos; "Remember the Time." As indicated in the photos above, Mr. Thriller was just about friends with everybody at one time or another in his life.)

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BREAKING THRILLERBABY NEWS: “E.T.” & “BLACK STALLION” SCREENWRITER MELISSA MATHISON DEPARTS FOR THE HEAVENS AT AGE 65; NOVEMBER 4TH, 2015.
LIKE THE ALIEN SHE MADE FAMOUS FOR SPIELBERG, SHE LEAVES BEHIND A RAINBOW; REFLECTING A PIONEERING TRAIL FOR OTHERS TO HOPEFULLY FOLLOW, HAVING BEEN ONE OF THE FIRST WRITERS IN HOLLYWOOD TO FINALLY POPULARIZE A “MORE ACCURATE” INTELLIGENCE FOR CINEMA'S PRE-TEEN YOUTH (SHE NEVER TOOK THEM FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN FUTURE-ADULTS AND TREATED THEIR CHARACTERS AS SUCH!) ... AND SETS A HIGH PRECIDENT FOR FUTURE WOMEN IN HOLLYWOOD. (BOTH MATHISON AND LUCAS-FILM OVERSEEER KATHLEEN KENNEDY EACH SHARED REMARKABLE “PRODUCER” CREDIT FOR SPIELBERG’S MOST KNOWN AND UNIVERSALLY LOVED MOTION PICTURE.)
(read more, below photos):

"E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" screenwriter Melissa Mathison with the star of Spielberg's film, Henry Thomas as ELLIOTT
No other film in the UNIVERSAL catalog, could bring more meaning to the word "UNIVERSAL" (circa 1981) ThrillerBaby.com/JoshuaCrawford.com

At one time a babysitter for “Godfather” & “Outsiders” director Francis Ford Coppola’s children (who produced her “Black Stallion” into an unexpected runaway ThrillerBaby Classic hit in 1979; despite its first 20 minutes containing no dialogue! Coppola’s father, Carmine, helped the film tremendously with its iconic score! And the film became so popular, it launched a 1983 hit sequel, warranting a CRITERION restoration in 2015!), it seemed only fitting that Mathison’s destiny and drive to reflect children with much more intelligence than the silver-screen had ever dared to show prior to her arrival, eventually lead her to help write the picture that would soon yield the foundation for Amblin Entertainment; the cornerstone company that would become the castle for the future king of Hollywood; Steven Spielberg. And she wrote it in only 8 weeks. Not bad for a babysitter. And what a fun babysitter she must’ve been.

And did we mention she married Indiana Jones for 21 years and bore him 2 kids? (An unseen Harrison Ford, her husband at the time of E.T.’s release, plays Elliott’s teacher in one of the film’s classic iconic scenes where Elliott sets the frogs free!)Or do we even need to.

Perhaps we’ll just let the above two pictures speak for themselves, along with Jerry Goldsmith’s wonderful “Kick The Can” music that helped tell both hers and Spielberg’s more modern (and better!) version of the old Twilight Zone episode that was credited to her in 1983 under one unique screen name that those who are fans of THIS site, might just find all too ironic;
Josh.Josh Rogan.Jerry Goldsmith's KICK THE CAN"Crawford-MIX!" from 1983's "TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE" for which Mathison scripted for Spielberg to direct.

Not bad for merely only a few other brief, but extremely noteworthy, credits to her name; such as bringing Scorsese to 1997’s “Kundan”, translating Disney’s “Ponyo” into English for American audiences in 2009 to help further the mainstreaming of ANIME (again with old Spielberg colleagues Kathleen Kennedy & Kennedy’s husband, Frank Marshall; a thrillerbaby legend in his right!) and she had just completed Steven’s first-ever Disney film due for release in 2016; “The BFG”; sure to ALSO be a ThrillerBaby classic. It doesn’t hurt either that her scripts for “The Escape Artist”, “Son Of The Morning Star”, and “The Indian In The Cupboard” are also considered highly revered ThrillerBaby cult-classics.

Again. The one reoccurring theme in all of her works? Well? Perhaps one should just trace the source of this very theme music … to match it with what it was written for; Spielberg’s “Kick The Can” sequence from “Twilight Zone: The Movie” in 1983 with Scatman Crothers, beautifully scored by the masterful Jerry Goldsmith whom Spielberg had also worked with one year earlier (1982) on Poltergeist. (John Williams was a bit busy on Steven’s other projects at the time.) This is a mix I edited together myself in 2012 (it helps put me to sleep at night and closes out my hand-made SCORES: VOLUME 4 collection as the final track on the album!), given that that for nearly two decades, its soundtrack (which yielded the Jennifer Warne’s hit “Nights Are Forever”) was only available in digital form on a German import before Film Score Monthly finally remastered it for an American release in 2009. When one watches this segment, which hit theaters just one year after E.T., they can easily sense the same scriptwriter … is behind the two pieces. For each of the two have you choking in tears. (And with Kick The Can’s running time being just shy of 30 minutes, this is really a testament to Mathison’s fine writing at depicting the often “isolation-factor” of “misunderstood pre-teens.” If not ones that lean more towards “prodigy.”)

And yes, it just wouldn’t be ThrillerBaby.com if I didn’t have a photo that included Melissa … and “Mr. THRILLER” himself; Michael Jackson. (Who just happened to do the Grammy-award winning read-along album for E.T.! As well as lending a lost single for the album itself; “Someone In The Dark.” which got shelved due to the fact that Jackson had secretly hopped record labels to record it without his prior label’s permission.)

Your work will touch the hearts of many more earthlings to come Melissa, and it was an honor for the heavens to share you with us, even if only briefly. There was nothing like seeing “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” to packed theaters with lines around the block in the summer of 1982 right in the middle of the U.F.O.-headquarters of the world; where I just happened to be born; Roswell, New Mexico. And it’s been my favorite movie ever since. I was just about the same age as Elliott was when I saw it for the first time, following the death of my grandfather, and like Elliott, I too was a middle-kid, caught up in between that Heaven and Hell which results from the divorcing of parents. For it was the last film I saw with my mother and father together, in the same theater. With me sitting between the two as tears ran down our faces by the time the credits rolled at the end.(They divorced just days later.)Do I dare say thatE.T. led me to many a great things?Yes, I do.As I was on June 25th, 2009, with ANOTHER departure, gone far too soon from this planet, my thoughts and prayers are with your children, who have every right to be jealous of their mother … whose little script about a little boy and his little friend that no-adult believed he had … until the two rode over a moon together (which she cranked out in just 8 weeks, thus resulting in an Oscar nod!), might I dare be bold enough to say that Melissa Mathison babysat EVERY child in the summer of 1982.And that’s a lot of children, considering that adjusted for inflation, “E.T.” remains the highest grossing single-entry film ever made.

Let us not forget what this brilliant musician ... did for our planet; uniting us all during his life of 50 years, then once more, upon his graduation into the heavens. But most importantly, he fathered an entire generation; ThrillerBabies (those born 1965-1980).

In Heaven, he's "timeless" ... and not near as "sleepless." And I imagine he's uniting far more than just a mere planet; more like an entire universe of universes.

Signature Place, the book that coined the word "ThrillerBaby" ... and one that was on his way to him the very day he passed ... (some believe he read it, others believe he never got to)
is almost ready to LAUNCH onto AMAZON!
1,000 pages ... in the form of a 3-part novel about the generation in which Jackson fathered ... is heading your way shortly.
Thanks to all the many Crawford fans and Jackson fans who have been anticipating this novel of mine for 8 long years, and for understanding the nature in which its release ... had to be placed on pause for a while.
Until now.
Once you've read it, you won't regret it!
Your extreme patience with allowing me to finally deliver this novel to the public, as I had intended to do 8 years ago (with Mr. Thriller himself to be the first to get the very first copy, fresh off the press ... until he tragically died the very day the novel was due to arrive to him) is greatly appreciated.
I wrote it for ALL of you. All ages, races, colors, and creeds.
And I would be lying if I said that I didn't have a little help from the heavens themselves.
Afterall, they're the ones who gave it to me.
And thank YOU "MJ" ... for trying your best ... to "heal our world,
to make it a better place."
Sincerely, and on behalf of the generation I named after you,
- JOSHUACRAWFORD(aka "Mr. ThrillerBaby")

"SIGNATURE PLACE: PART 1" ARRIVES AT AMAZON.COM 2017 !
START FOLLOWING US ON TWITTER FOR BREAKING NEWS AT Twitter.com/ThrillerBaby( NOMINATED FOR A "SHORTY" AWARD! )OFFICIAL TWEETS WILL NOT BEGIN UNTIL THE FOLLOWERS NUMBERS HAS REACHED 1,000.
( SEE BELOW FOR THE UNVEILING OF FORTHCOMING BOOK COVER! )( ThrillerBaby Home Page )

THANK-YOU FOR VISITING THRILLERBABY.COM * TO REWARD YOURSELF FOR SURVIVING YOUR CHILDHOOD,
WANNA PLAY A QUICK GAME OF FROGGER ?
WE THOUGHT SO !

JUST USE YOUR ARROW KEYS TO BRING BACK THAT THRILLERBABY IN ALL OF US ! ( YOUR SPACE-BAR CAN BE USED TO PAUSE THE GAME IF YOU NEED TO GO FETCH A POP-TART ! )

IT'S FINALLY HERE !!!SIGNATURE PLACE : PART 1 !!!
THE SAGA OF THETHRILLERBABY GENERTION !!!
Coming toAMAZON.COM 2017 !!!The anticipated novel by Joshua Crawford,SIGNATURE PLACE part 1: the saga of the "ThrillerBaby Generation" ...
has now FINALLY been officially turned over to Amazon.com to go to PRESS, and is now awaiting the natural process of gaining its own "display-page" on Amazon so that ORDERS for the book can be placed. This process is expected to last anywhere from 1 to 60 days. Please check back here on this website daily. As soon as a street-date for this display page is announced,
you'll hear about it HERE first!

ON THE SUBJECT OF MICHAEL JACKSON'S DEATH:In light of the many who are currently wondering what Mr. Crawford's thoughts are on the death of the beloved pop icon, Michael Jackson, whom Crawford named his entire "ThrillerBaby" generation after a mere 15 years before Jackson ever died, Mr. Crawford has forgone addressing the public on such matters, but will do so in a massive 123-page introduction for PART ONE of Crawford's " SIGNATURE PLACE" 3-part epic-novel, which was initially set to go to Jackson himself on the very day that he shockingly DIED; June 25th, 2009.
Naturally, his death delayed the release of the book for over 8 years ...
UNTIL NOW.

Crawford has had to spend an much time year "rewriting" the entire introduction of his novel, to take into affect the morbid and sad circumstances surrounding the gloved-one's untimely death.

SIGNATURE PLACE will soon make its worldwide premiere on Amazon.com, 2017 !
( Keep checking for updates! And follow us on Crawford's OFFICIAL "ThrillerBaby NEWS" Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ThrillerBabyNEWS)Amazon's criteria guidelines for a book of this magnitude, require a waiting-process in order to generate the book's "display page" for purchase. We realize how important it is to each and every one of you who are aiming to understand how Jackson's 1982 mega-selling album, Thriller, spawned an entire generation to which Crawford's book coined.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the millions of ThrillerBabies around the world ... and throughout the universe.
Please bare with us, and check back here often for the latest updates on "Signature Place" - the complete 1,000-page 3-part saga of the ThrillerBaby generationwhich Crawford first started authoring at the age of 19 in 1994.
(And yes, for those wondering, Mr. Crawford was invited to the funeral.)

FOR BREAKING NEWS ON THE EXACT RELEASE DATE WHEN IT BECOMES AVAILABLE ,
START FOLLOWING US BY CLICKING ON OUR BRAND NEW OFFICIAL TWITTER PAGE !Twttier.com/ThrillerBabyOfficial TWEETS will not begin until the followers numbers has reached 1,000.AFTER YOU SEE "THIS IS IT",
GET READY TO READ ABOUT HOW IT ALL BEGAN ...SIGNATURE PLACE: PART 1 !coming soon to Amazon.com 2017 ! (www.SignaturePlace.com)

L E G A L N O T I C E : All of our featured thrillerbaby songs and their artists that are represented on this website, are used for HISTORICAL REFERENCES ONLY, to represent and depict the time in which they first began influencing the entire thrillerbaby generation; those born 1965-1980.

Many artists have already expressed gratitude for having featured their song(s) in a positive light on our site; bringing much more attention to the song, and in return, introducing it to new generations; such as the late great artist Laura Branigan, whose estate was very honored that we picked Branigan's 1984 hit THE LUCKY ONEfor our June 2008 THRILL OF THE MONTH.

If you are an artist who has one of your songs featured on our site, and don't feel it's appropriate for us to re-popularize the song for new generations, please let us know and we will gladly remove it upon your request. We do NOT offer downloads of our featured songs, as one can only listen to them for historical references, which most likely compells the visiting individual to seek the song out at another downloading website such as iTunes or Amazon, so that the artist and song of choice can receive proper due royalties.

The executive creator of ThrillerBaby.com, JOSHUA CRAWFORD, aside from being the author of the book that first coined the word "ThrillerBaby" ( Signature Place), is also a well-respected singer-songwriter, & lyricist, and feels very strongly about NOT illeaglly downloading songs without paying the proper copyright holders OF such songs, or using the songs through file-sharing; which is why we don't offer them as downloads here at ThrillerBaby.com*If you wish to use certain selected written literary pieces on this website in your published research or desired journalistic entry, please email us, telling us which portion of the site you wish to use, and the majority of the time, we will allow you to do so, on the condition that you CREDIT US with the portion in which you wish to borrow; including Crawford's original film-reviews for the ThrillerBaby MOST WANTED page. And on THAT NOTE, if you come across a featured song that does not credit its creators properly, or discover that a fact we've stated, has been stated inaccurately, please email us and let us know so, as aside from being 5 years in the making, every effort went in to making thrillerbaby.com, and although we strive for perfection, we know we're not perfect and might make an oversight from time to time. Please dontate any corrections you come across on the site, but do so by supporting them with verifiable fact.

Have a COMPLIM ENT ? Send us one. We LOVE compliments and might just send you out a COMPLIMENTARY V.I.P. PRIZE in return to your desired mailing address.

Want to submit a certain song or music-video for possible placement on our site or our THRILL OF THE MONTH ? Feel free. The great thing about the NET, is that it never closes. We're always open to new ideas. As we've strived hard to make our website the most easily navigatable website on the planet, and we'd like to keep it that way.